Apple’s iPhone 17 lineup has become the company’s most successful family of phones ever, helping the company seize market share amid a broader mobile downturn and powering its stock to new highs.
Now, as the company’s Sept. 9 product launch draws near, the iPhone maker faces a challenge. Apple needs to keep the momentum of the 17 lineup alive while impressing users with a new suite of products infused with the latest artificial-intelligence technology.
Next week’s event promises to be flashy — and different from the ones of years past. Apple’s new CEO, John Ternus, will likely introduce the iPhone 18 Pro, Pro Max and the highly anticipated foldable iPhone, reportedly named the iPhone Ultra.
Meanwhile, cheaper iPhone 18 and 18 Air models are expected to be absent from the reveal. The iPhone 17 and 17 Air will continue to be on sale until their successors are released in early 2027. Updates to the Apple Watch and AirPods are also anticipated.
The upcoming iPhone 18 Pro will reportedly be available in colors such as dark cherry, alongside new light-blue and dark-gray options, according to Macworld.
Apple did not immediately respond to a MarketWatch request for comment.
Concept renders published by news outlets like MacRumors offer a preview of what the new phones might look like.
The staggered release schedule is likely a result of supply-chain constraints, according to David Naranjo, associate director at Counterpoint Research. Overwhelming demand for the iPhone 17 lineup has left Apple facing shortages on its semiconductor processors, and a global memory shortage from the AI boom has driven up component prices.
In addition to spreading out the strain on manufacturing partners, Apple’s phased rollout also directs more attention to its higher-end phones.
“The memory constraints and inflation that’s happened across the board indicates that Apple is really looking at the premium SKUs to try to maximize revenue and somewhat protect their margins,” Naranjo told MarketWatch. SKUs, or stock-keeping units, are how those in the industry refer to different model configurations.
Customers of the higher-end models might be less price-sensitive in this economic environment, helping Apple drive up the average price of the units it sells. And the foldable iPhone, which Naranjo called a “halo product,” introduces an even more premium offering. The foldable smartphone is expected to start at around the $2,000 mark and potentially go up to $3,000 for higher-storage models, according to industry estimates.
Next week’s launch will also be a high-stakes test of Apple’s AI capabilities, as it’ll be the first time that users will be able to experience a revamped Siri powered by Apple Intelligence. Apple initially announced these plans in 2024, but they experienced delays.
Apple Intelligence utilizes three tiers of processing architecture: Some queries are handled directly on a user’s device, others are routed to Apple’s Private Cloud Compute, and the most complex ones are handed off to third-party models with user permission. Apple showed off the new capabilities in June during the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote. The new agentic Siri boasts the ability to synthesize data across areas like messages, emails and photos and carry out multistep actions across different apps.
The company has bolstered the memory capacity on its devices to support these capabilities — simultaneously heightening its supply-chain cost pressures.
Apple’s issue two years ago was that it “overpromised and massively underdelivered,” Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, told MarketWatch. “Having a new CEO who’s more product-focused will help them navigate this new AI era where people are expecting new devices and form factors to meet their AI demands.”
Investors and consumers will also find out if and how much Apple is raising its iPhone prices. The company has already hiked prices on its Mac and iPad lines but has kept its core iPhone offering untouched thus far. Currently, the base iPhone 17 starts at $799.
Morgan Stanley’s Erik Woodring speculated in a July note that Apple could enact a $200 price increase across the entire iPhone 18 lineup. According to Woodring, iPhones are highly inelastic, meaning that consumer demand is not highly sensitive to changes in price.
Uncertainty around iPhone prices has boosted sales this year, as consumers have preemptively bought now to avoid potential price hikes in the future, Jefferies analyst Edison Lee wrote in an August note.
If Apple maintains the price of the 17 and 17 Air next week, “sales would gravitate toward those two models” and create pressure on the 18 lineup, Lee said. And if Apple raises prices on the 17 models, it would likely depress overall iPhone sales, he added. As a result, Lee sees potential risk to iPhone sales volume and profitability in the next few quarters.
“It’s going to be a difficult compare on this cycle versus the iPhone 17 cycle,” Counterpoint’s Naranjo said. “But I don’t think Apple is trying to recreate what happened to the iPhone 17. They’re looking at the 18 cycle being more of a premium category, with the foldable leading the charge.”